Global Read Aloud

Global Read Aloud with Padma Venkatraman

by JG Annino 

Hello this lovely Wednesday in June. We become world travelers today,
whether the trip is by story or through seagoing or air-riding.
The Global Read Aloud & one of its 2019 authors,
Padma Venkatraman  take us out into the larger community.

Do you see the kids running across a bridge on the cover, above?
They won my heart & they broke it, so many times.
Such is the power of this story, a singular MG novel about unfortunate
children. It is unusual in the way the street-living children appear naturally
with their full humanity, including humor, creativity, joy & deep intelligence.
I also love how they question each other about Faith & their various beliefs
in the goodness of people.

This month the two girls, a younger sister & an older sister & two boys who aren't
related except through the community of life on the streets,  are
front and center characters
at the annual American Library Association meeting, in Washington, D.C.

These kid characters mesmerized me and they are deservedly here there
everywhere in reading groups, classrooms, home study programs
& award considerations. 

Readers in Global Read Aloud, whether they choose one of several listed
picture books or YA,  or THE BRIDGE HOME, or FRONT DESK by Kelly Yang
(see below) connect with other young readers in creative & deep ways,
to exchange ideas about Story.
Checking out the Global Read Aloud Facebook page I found that after
summer recess, classrooms from South Africa
to North Carolina are lined up to participate with their thoughts on
THE BRIDGE HOME, as is the lucky class of Group Blog's
own Patricia Toht - who told me about this neat connection.

Some children will have a jump start at the book before school resumes
if their families are TV watchers, because
a parents Super Summer list from the popular TODAY show
gave THE BRIDGE HOME a groovy shout-out.

The creator of of Global Read Aloud has been called
out as a cool teacher by Scholastic:

https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/articles/teaching-content/cool-teacher-pernille-ripp/

Here is the Global Read Aloud website:

https://theglobalreadaloud.com/for-participants/contenders/2019-contenders/

Here is a School Library Journal article about GRA by Kara Yorio.

                               Who is the author of THE BRIDGE HOME?

                                                     photo: Highlights Foundation
                                                     Author Padma Venkatraman

Padma Venkatram, Ph.D. worked as a scientist-oceanographer,
sailing world seas researching with and directing scientists onboard
research vessels.
She left her native India, where all of her novels are set, for the UK &
later for the USA East Coast, where she lives with her young family.

She is a popular mentor at reading & writing conferences,  in the USA
& outside the country.

THE BRIDGE HOME follows four characters who form bonds during

difficult times, as children living on the streets of Chennai,
(once known as Madras,) a coastal tourism area of India.

The characters are multi-dimensional, seen as complete
feeling thinking doing youngsters.

Tears may flow during tragic scenes - they did for me -
but because of the author's skillful framing of the story,
the reader is left with great hope.

For more on Padma Venkatraman, here is a lengthy recent Q/A interview
where she discusses craft, research, family & how characters stick
with her, among reader-friendly, writer-friendly, topics.

If your reading days are more often spent among 
Picture Books or Early Readers
you will also want to know that
the talented & prolific artist/ author 
amazing Yuyi Morales
is the 2019 Global Read Aloud picture book author.

And the Early Reader Author is Angela Dominguez, who is new to me,
which is part of what this global connection is all about - finding
books & authors new to you &
outside the place or culture in which you or your students/family/friends,
formed.
At Global Read Aloud,
alongside THE BRIDGE HOME by Padma Venkatraman,
please meet
(if you don't already know her p.b Where's Broccoli?)
the awesome Kelly Yang, with FRONT DESK, who is knew to me.
Kelly's poignant story is inspired on her immigrant family life as a child.
If I were a school, I would select each of these MG stories - THE BRIDGE HOME &
FRONT DESK.
We will be reading & hearing much about each of the Global Read Aloud Authors
for many years to come. 

A 2016 Highlights Foundation verse novel workshop brought my opportunity
to meet Padma (& other generous souls - bookstore maven Joanne Fritz, in particular,
who wrote the article linked to, just above.)
Padma asked me probing questions about my abolitionist-topic novel manuscript,
which is no where near revised enough,
but I'm glad we have stayed in touch on other topics.

                  Highlights Foundation - Padma Venkatraman,  Jan Godown Annino

BOOM! BELLOW! BLEAT! by Georgia Heard and Aaron DeWitt

Greetings - we have a winner of this new title - Lynne-Marie.
Thank you everyone, for participating!
----------------------------------
Introducing Georgia Heard's BOOM! BELLOW! BLEAT!

with illustrations by Aaron DeWitt

picture book poem collection + giveaway

 * * * *

By JG Annino

I'm chirpy today with news of a community chorus collected in 

BOOM! BELLOW! BLEAT! 

Animal Poems for Two or More Voices.

This is an inter-active book that blares, whispers and

cajoles with an invitation to Read Aloud. 

Through the poem pages and beyond, nature notes

in this pitch-perfect picture book

invite us into a wild way of communication, some of which

I didn't know existed. You, your students, family, friends

will be baffled, excited and jubilant about questions raised and 

answers given in this clever approach to sharing creature sounds.

I can especially see this title selected by youth chorus directors,

music teachers & and youth musical theater directors, beyond

the family, library and school market.

Poems mentioned here are c.2019 by Georgia Heard

Cricket Arithmetic

Cold pierces evening

crickets crouch in corn stubble-

last chant of the year

chirp chirp chirp chirp chirp chirp chirp chirp chirp chirp

The crickets (channeling Georgia) provide two other poems

and also work on counting (in back-of-book nature notes.)

Right whales offer a deep-sea song,  

elephants speak in their own two voices,

from trunk tip, or, their mouths.

So many other creatures (I counted at least 40) also chime in.

Georgia Heard's spare poems provide room for child readers

(or their older companions) to expressively play the parts of

lungs (frogs, toads,)

swim bladder (some fish,)

claw (snapping shrimp)

to attempt to emulate sounds from origins other than mouths.

I knew a little bit about cricket wings, but not as much as this

book joyfully shares, not did I ever guess much about other body parts

that animal language tumbles from.

I like how illustrator Aaron DeWitt's double spreads

evoke a here and now mood in me, employing an uncluttered

digital painting style that is  transportive,

making me feel as if I am in the scene.

I hope you can read BOOM! BELLOW! BLEAT! soon.

As someone who sometimes writes to pals whatdoyouthink? I melted

at these two ending lines from Georgia Heard's poem, titled

" Bigclaw Snapping Shrimp"

...Fast,fishswimawayfast,

                                                               watchoutforshimp'sbubbleblast!

Call me a punster but I will mention that Georgia heard

the sounds in creating these poems and Aaron illustrates with wit.

You will likely read this book several times to select a favorite

voice, sound, or back story of how specific community chorus members

create their communicating ways. I finish the book and want to begin

again, thinking what a marvelous universe this is.

And no, I'm not identifying the wild individuals who are the source

of the three title sounds. You. Will. Be. Surprised.

- COMMENT here by March 15 for a chance to receive my review copy.

Other Georgia Heard illustrated books for children I am fortunate to

already have on my shelves, include 

FALLING DOWN THE PAGE, which is a collection of  list poems 

and also, THE PLACE I KNOW,  poems of comfort for all of us,

especially students, in these troubled times. More recently I have found

Georgia's guide, WRITING TOWARD HOME and also, 

HEART MAPS and eventually expect to share some discoveries in these 

at Bookseedstudio, my blog. 

Aaron DeWitt also created the huggable art for DREAMING OF YOU 

by Poetry Friday's AmyLudwig VanDerwater, so it's time to meet 

Aaron's work if he is new to you.

  

* * * * 

- Georgia Heard online

You can meet Georgia at a Highlights Foundation workshop

 - Aaron DeWitt (who trained in art, in Florida) is here

(Remember to comment & if you don't want to be included in the give away, just say so.)

Bunny selects a winner! Lynne Marie will receive this title. Let us know your postal address. 

Astronaut Aquanaut - A Stellar Science Book and Mentor Text for Nonfiction Writers, Too by Kathy Halsey

I can honesty say that most of what I know about science comes from children's authors like today's featured guest, Jen Swanson. Had science books been as much fun as those she's written for National Geographic Kids, I may have been something more "science-y" than an English teacher. 

Recommended for Teachers, Librarians and Homeschoolers

I highly recommend ASTRONAUT AQUANAUT: HOW SPACE SCIENCE AND SEA SCIENCE INTERACT for school libraries, science classrooms grades 3-8. This book services a multitude of multimodal lessons.

• Teachers and parents have ready-made experiments/activities that are easy to replicate in almost every chapter. 
• The comparison/contrast structure of astronauts and aquanauts' training and experiences will get kids wondering and English/Language Arts teachers cheering. (Students at multiple grade levels need to write comparison/contrast compositions, and Jen's book lays out a fine example of the format.) 
• Science and E/LA teachers could easily expand on the chapter "Space and Deep Sea: More Alike Than You Imagine" for an interdisciplinary project including research.
• Additionally, web sites, a glossary, and astronaut/aquanaut biographies are added features that librarians and student researches will appreciate.

Recommended Mentor Text for Nonfiction Writers

Nonfiction folks, delve into an author study of Jen Swanson's books to see in-depth how she breaks down complex topics and makes them factual and kid-friendly. (Click here.) I've reviewed several of her books for the GROG.  Here are a few techniques that nonfiction writers will want to emulate. 

• When tackling dense topics such as space vs. oceans or nanotechnology, write simply and use a cohesive style/structure throughout the text. Predictive text structure help readers relax and concentrate on new material. Every chapter in this book is set up in a similar format with questions, interesting ancillary material in sidebars, an "explorer's notebook," and activities with questions to expand the reader's thoughts after the experiments.
• Drop definitions into the text deftly and think about alliterative titles, too. Here are some title examples that kids will appreciate: "Darkness Descents," "What Goes Up Must Come Down," and "Expanding Our Horizons." 
• Look at this example of a quick definition that doesn't stop the reader with an information dump. " 'Micro' is another way of saying 'very small,' so microgravity refers to extremely small gravitational forces."
• Think about you point of view. Ask questions to entice readers. Jen uses second person POV and as you'll see from our interview (Q & A below), National Geographic prefers this option also.  
• How you use comparisons matters. Jen creates her own concrete comparisons using ideas kids already know. In describing how pressure feels in the deepest ocean she says, "...the pressure is great than 15,7000 psi. That is a thousand times the amount of pressure you feel when standing on the ground." In a further comparison she states that amount of pressure is like "... one person holding up 50 jumbo airplanes."

Q & A with Jen Swanson

There have been several good blog interviews with Jen on ASTRONAUT AQUANAUT, so I chose to focus on questions nonfiction writers might find instructive. 

K: Do you outline/propose your books now to NatGeo or do you have specific editor w/whom you work?

Jen:  I have been lucky enough to work with one editor at  NGKids on several projects. We have a great, collaborative relationship which makes it really fun to work on books together. Because of this, my submission process is more relaxed. I may not create a full-blown proposal with completely outlined chapters, but more of a “this is what I want to do” sort of thing. It takes awhile to get to that point, and works well for the two of us, since we are also friends. But my agent is involved in the process and still handles all of the contract negotiations.

K: What informed your choice of 2nd person POV? 

J:  That is NGKids style. They love the 2^nd person, informal type of language. This allows the reader to feel as if they are going on the journey with the book as they read it. The goal is for them to experience life up in space and down in the ocean, just like the experts did!

K: Do you decide what information is in sidebars?  If not, who does that?

 J:  Everything you see in the book pretty much started with me. Of course, my editor may make suggestions for areas that might need more expansion or ways to improve the book, which I definitely pay attention to, but I wrote all the sidebars. Specifically, it was my idea to approach experts (astronauts and aquanauts) and ask them questions that I thought my readers might want to know. It took a lot of effort and a great deal of persistence to catch up with some of them. But I think it is well worth it.  

K: Where do you find those cool comparisons? On a web site? 

J:  Nope. I just come up with this all on my own. I’m trying to get the reader to understand how big or little something is and the best way is to compare it to something they already know. This is a great tool for writing science books for kids; one I use in all of my books. 

K: What “in-person” research did you do for the book?

J:  Unfortunately, traveling to these amazing environments was not a part of my research. Maybe someday. I did, however, travel to NYC to meet Aquanaut Fabien Cousteau in person. A thrill of a lifetime and the picture of us together with Liz Bentley-Magee, a female aquanaut featured in the book made it into the back page.

K: Your writing tips for tackling science for kids…

J: Think like a kid! Make your writing FUN and EXCITING! Science is best when it’s hands-on because kids can see it happening right in front of them. While you can’t always do that with a book, you can make them feel the excitement of trying it if your words are active and engaging.

K: What are you working on now? 

J: I’m so very excited about this book with Peachtree Publishers coming out next April. It’s called Save The Crash-Test Dummies and it’s a book about ENGINEERING and car safety. I write engineering in all caps, because it is really a big thing for an engineering book to be published by a trade publisher. This book is an out-of-the box and fun look at the history of car safety engineering.  It even has a snarky, talking crash-test dummy as your guide through the ages. I have see the initial layouts and they are stunning. I am REALLY looking forward to this book! Go Engineering!

Finally Jen and Miranda Paul will be teaching their "Nuts and Bolts of science Writing" at Highlights again this summer Attendees will learn the ins and outs of writing fiction and nonfiction science books and will be able to submit to 5 different trade editors. Check out more information here.